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“There are certain people, whom certain herbs, the good digestion of disturbs. Henry the VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon because of her reckless use of tarragon.” – attributed to Ogden Nash

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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Best Lemon Sugar Cookies

I am so far behind in my blog posts. Witness the snow outside in the picture! My initial sentence on this,when I first uploaded the picture, was, "For some reason, lemons give me hope for spring." Then I typed in the recipe and that was all she wrote, so to speak.

And now I already see leaves falling, and it's still August, though barely. This gives me a bad feeling about winter! My husband always heaves a big sigh in July as soon as days start growing shorter and says, "winter's almost here." He is an Eeyore, like his Dad. ("Oooh, Pooooh, I might as well crawl under the covers until Aaapril. There's noo point in getting up.")

These are my favorite lemon cookies. They are one of the things I want to make when spring is around the corner, as in fall when I want to make Chocolate Chip Gingerbread. I stumbled onto this wonderful cookie recipe on the Baker's Rack blog and have been making them for a few years. They have that wonderful sugar cookie texture and a bright lemon flavor from both the cookie and glaze. Divine. I sent them to my nephew the Marine for his birthday because they are one of his favorites and he is one of mine.

2.
In medium bowl, whisk together butter, sugar and brown sugar. (I do this in the pan I used to melt the butter.) Whisk
in eggs, vanilla (lemon extract) and the 1 tbsp. lemon peel until well-blended. In another
medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into
butter mixture.

3. In small bowl, whisk together all glaze ingredients. You will glaze cookies while they are warm.

4.
Use #16 cookie scoop or 1/4 cup measure to scoop dough; place on
baking sheets, leaving at least 3 inches between cookies. Flatten
gently into 3-inch rounds. (I make them smaller and haven't found it necessary to flatten them, leaving about 2 inches between each.)

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes (start checking at 9 minutes, and at 7 if smaller) or until just barely golden brown around the edges but still pale in center and slightly
soft. Remove from oven; immediately slide parchment paper onto wire
rack or counter. Cool for 5 or so minutes. Brush glaze over cookies (just use a teaspoon if you don't have a pastry brush or hate trying to clean them). Cool completely.

18 (4-inch) cookie (30 to 36 3-inch cookies)

*I admit I never measure for the icing, so I end up making extra as I even out the consistency. A little more lemon juice, a little more powdered sugar, etc. If I don't have more lemon juice to add, I use a little milk. It works. It all goes on the cookies, which doesn't hurt anything.